Baghdad - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with his Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad on yesterday for wide-ranging talks, including on US sanctions against Tehran. Washington has granted Baghdad a waiver until late March to keep buying Iranian gas and power, despite reimposing tough sanctions on Tehran in November. "We discussed the unilateral economic measures taken by the US and are working with our neighbour (Iran) on them," Hakim said. Besides canned food and cars, Baghdad also buys 1,300 megawatts of electricity and 28 million cubic metres of natural gas daily from Iran to feed power plants. But energy ties between Baghdad and Tehran appear to have remained close, with Iran's oil minister visiting Baghdad last week to denounce US sanctions as "totally illegal".

Source: Philippine Star January 13, 2019 17:15 UTC